Drugs

 Guardian - When voters approved Measure 110 in 2020, they made Oregon the scene of a novel social experiment in the US by decriminalising the possession of small amounts of hard drugs and funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into substance abuse treatment.The vote was celebrated as a groundbreaking step toward a compassionate approach to substance use disorders, one that prioritised treatment over punishment. But nearly three years after its passage, the law has become the subject of fierce debate as Oregon, like many US states, grapples with a spiralling opioid crisis. In recent months, residents, business owners and law enforcement agents in Oregon have all pointed to spiraling drug use – in downtowns, where people openly smoke fentanyl while others lie unconscious in doorways, in small towns where mayors unaccustomed to homelessness are suddenly grappling with encampments, in terrifying newspaper stories about middle class families grieving teenagers who lost their lives to one bad pill.

Lawmakers are now considering a number of bills that would reinstate criminal penalties such as fines and jail time for drug possession – a decision that could come any day. A coalition led by prominent business owners have threatened to mobilise an effort to hobble the law even more by putting it back to the public in a ballot measure in the fall. Recent polling has shown more than half of voters support a total repeal.